I have been interested in relationships where people are together despite the odds,” director, playwright and actor Faezeh Jalali tells us over the phone. Her play, Strictly Unconventional, premieres this week and will present six stories—all set within the home. It began with Marriage of Convenience, a 15-minute piece Jalali originally wrote for queer media platform Gaysi’s ninth anniversary about a gay man and a polyamorous woman who spend their lives together. 

Others in this collection include the story of a marriage in which the woman is sexually dissatisfied; a straight couple who think they are perfect (“but there cannot be a perfect relationship,” Jalali reminds us); a lesbian couple, with both members dealing with mental health issues; an older ex-pilot married to a woman he has no love for; and a talk show where a thoughtless host ungraciously, intrusively questions a trans couple.